Local athletes significantly increased their medal count at this year’s Alberta Winter Games. Northwestern Alberta’s Zone 8 brought home a total of 32 medals from the Wood Buffalo event, up from 20 from Medicine Hat in 2016.
City and County of Grande Prairie athletes saw major success in artistic gymnastics, winning an all around team gold medal. Samantha Ladwig also took the all around bronze medal, as well as a bronze in bars, while Adrionna Brooks won gold in beam and silver in bars in her division. The team’s seven medals were rounded out by a gold medal in floor and silver in beam by Kaitlyn O’Handley.
Beaverlodge’s Ella Kuhn dominated in snowboarding, winning gold medals in U14 slopestyle and boarder cross, while the County’s Keileb Pelletier took silver in the same competitions in the U16 men’s division. The region also got three more gold medals and a silver in biathlon from Hannah and Jordan Lundstrom of the County.
Grande Prairie wrestlers brought in another three medals, with golds from Sydney Eros and Jason Pangracs and silver from Noah Osorio. The women’s volleyball team also edged out all of their competition to take first place.
Also golden at the games were Grande Prairie cross-country skiers Aiden Armstrong and Amy Redmond, while Johanna Redmond won a bronze. Bronze medals also went to Damien Lefebrve in archery, freestyle skiers Ethan and Noah Arcand, and Sydney Kinderwater in judo. Her teammate Angie Michelle took silver in her weight division.
A silver medal also went to figure skater Sadie Finnebraaten of Wembley in the free skate, while the speedskating men’s 13 to 14 year old relay team won bronze.
Overall, Zone 8 was sixth out of eight regions in the medal count, up from eighth in 2016. The Alberta Summer Games are up next for the province, and will be held in the City and County of Grande Prairie this summer.
